Author: Professor Good Ales

Not actual picture of solar cells used

Written by David Young for the Fort Collins Coloradoan

The second Fort Collins brewery in less than a week has launched a photovoltaic solar electrical system to utilize the sun’s rays to help make beer.

Mere days after New Belgium Brewing Co. launched the largest privately owned PV solar array in Colorado, Odell Brewing Co. activated its own solar array Thursday.
Continue reading “Odell Brewing rolls toward sustainability by activating its own solar array”

Misery Bay
Erie Brewing
IPA
Erie, Pennsylvania
6.5%

Profiled by Ken Carman

I am very familiar with these brewers. They used to be in the old train station in Erie when they had a brewpub. Now a fine brewpub called The Brewerie occupies that location. Expect a Brew Biz on it probably sometime this year.

Most of Erie Brewing’s beers are OK, but pushing any envelope? Big stand outs in craft brewing in any sense? Eh, hell no would be an appropriate response to both questions, at least the last time I had one: and I have had several including their signature beer, Mad Anthony. Not impressed. But I must admit; it’s been a while and I have never had their IPA… until now.

I was surprised.

Cascade nose up front with definite caramel sense. Mid-gold color. Less dark than smell would insinuate… you would think all this caramel-like malt sense would “brown” the quaff more than this… at least a bit of very light brown, or tan. Carmel mouthfeel with moderate carbonation. Clings to roof of mouth. Head dies soon.

Taste: lots of carmelization. Seems heavy body-wise/mouthfeel at first, but drops off fast. Not knocked over, but probably best beer had from these brewers I’ve ever had.

I recommend it.

I believe Misery Bay might be where the colonials hid their ships on the eastern side of Presque Isle where they couldn’t be seen when being chased by the Brits, They hauled them by hand across the peninsula that sticks quite a few miles into Lake Erie. That left the Brits wondering what magic trick had made our ships disappear.

It is a pleasure to drive and walk the beach on the western side these days, but I suspect when the colonials kept disappearing as they chased them around the western side the King might have considered Presque more of a curse. Or maybe some huge middle finger lifted right in the face of the British.

It also serves as a graveyard for many patriots.

Written by Charlie Papazian

From Examiner.com You can follow this series there, but please check out other sources, like bjcp.org for taste evaluations, defects and judging standards. This should provide a more complete picture.

(Prof. GA- Is it possible the Examiner missed printing part of this article? Some spaces were blank and descriptions incomplete or somewhat askew. But the information is still interesting.)

Several quantitative variables differentiate one beer from another helping to define beer styles.

During the 1980s and early 90s analytical variables measured by Professor Anton Piendl of the Institut für Bräuerei-Technologie und Mickrobiologie der Technischen Universität München at Weihenstephan established a baseline for identifying beer style characters.  More than 500 different beers were analyzed.  The data helped American Homebrewers Association and Brewers Association begin its work more than 25 years ago to help develop its current guidelines for beer types.  Professor Piendl’s work was published over a 13 years period in the 1980s and 1990s in the German brewing journal Brauindustrie.   Here is a list of the values he measured.
Continue reading “Beer Styles: What Do Beer Scientists Evaluate?”

Written by Leah McLaren for The Spectator (UK)

The government acts as if booze is the root cause of all our social problems, says Leah McLaren, but it’s not. Drinking is an important part of British culture, the pub is the hub of the community, and health warnings can even be counterproductive.

“No drug, not even alcohol, causes the fundamental ills of society. If we’re looking for the source of our troubles, we shouldn’t test people for drugs, we should test them for stupidity, ignorance, greed and love of power.”

— P.J. O’Rourke

Happy new year! But don’t pass the bubbly. Haven’t you heard? We are all in danger of losing our souls to the demon liquor. According to the government, alcohol expands your liver, distends your pancreas and turns your brainstem to jelly. It makes you gamble and stumble and sleep with women who aren’t your wife. It’s highly addictive, full of harmful nitrates and the latest craze among schoolchildren aged four to six. Rampant swilling explains why the NHS is overburdened, unemployment is high and Gordon Brown looks so exhausted. It makes poor people beat their babies to death and rich people put money in hedge funds.

And you wouldn’t want that, would you?
Continue reading “Don’t Worry — Drink and Be Merry”

Peter Fowler

Written by Ben Ellery for Oxford Mail (UK)

THERE are bitters, bitter bitters and then Peter Fowler’s latest creation, which he hopes will earn him the title of bitterest brewer in the world.
Continue reading “Brewer’s Bid to Be the Bitterest”

Nashville, TN area

Please be sure to attend the January meeting of the MCB. We need nominations for officers for the year 2010 (election is held in February). So far, the only nomination I know of is Brandon Jones for President. Members must be current in their dues in order to be eligible to vote in the election. Let Jonathan know you are coming – we need a pretty close head count I guess.

The club has big plans this year for the annual competition – this will be our 15th! Come and hear what’s on tap!

Thanks – and Happy New Year to everyone.

Liz

January 9th @ 2:00 pm
108 Bridge Street, Franklin, TN 37064

The Topic- How NOT to Judge Beer

Written by Ken Carman

I opened up the beer: pre-competition judging. I think I had judged 3 or 4 competitions at that point: at best. I wasn’t BJCP yet and hadn’t thought through my duties to those who had spent so much time and effort brewing and submitting beer. The smell literally filled the big upstairs room at Boscos where we were judging. A National rated judge at the other end of the table gagged and said, “Whew, all that in one bottle?”

Hence the birth of “dirty diaper beer.”
Continue reading “Brew Biz: Werts and All”

Without intent, I have collected well over 1,000 beer bottles since the early 70s. When something finally had to be done about the cheap paneling in this old modular, I had a choice. Tear down the walls while, oh, so carefully, replacing the often rotted 1X3s. Or: cover them with… The Bottle Collection.

Written by Ken Carman

Continue reading “From the Bottle Collection: Suwanee Ale”